A Liberalism Safe for Catholicism?: Perspectives from the Review of Politics

by Daniel Philpott (Editor), Ryan T. Anderson (Editor)

Overview

This volume is the third in the "Perspectives from The Review of Politics" series, following The Crisis of Modern Times, edited by A. James McAdams (2007), and War, Peace, and International Political Realism, edited by Keir Lieber (2009). In A Liberalism Safe for Catholicism?, editors Daniel Philpott and Ryan Anderson chronicle the relationship between the Catholic Church and American liberalism as told through twenty-seven essays selected from the history of the Review of Politics, dating back to the journal's founding in 1939. The primary subject addressed in these essays is the development of a Catholic political liberalism in response to the democratic environment of nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. Works by Jacques Maritain, Heinrich Rommen, and Yves R. Simon forge the case for the compatibility of Catholicism and American liberal institutions, including the civic right of religious freedom. The conversation continues through recent decades, when a number of Catholic philosophers called into question the partnership between Christianity and American liberalism and were debated by others who rejoined with a strenuous defense of the partnership. The book also covers a wide range of other topics, including democracy, free market economics, the common good, human rights, international politics, and the thought of John Henry Newman, John Courtney Murray, and Alasdair MacIntyre, as well as some of the most prominent Catholic thinkers of the last century, among them John Finnis, Michael Novak, and William T. Cavanaugh. This book will be of special interest to students and scholars of political science, journalists and policymakers, church leaders, and everyday Catholics trying to make sense of Christianity in modern society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780268101701
Publisher:	University of Notre Dame Press
Publication date:	06/30/2017
Series:	Review of Politics Series
Edition description:	1
Pages:	678
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Daniel Philpott is professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame and editor of The Politics of Past Evil (University of Notre Dame Press, 2006).

Read an Excerpt

“The pages of the Review of Politics since its founding in 1939 can be read as a chronicle of this partnership between the Catholic Church and liberal institutions—its development, its heyday, its encounter of travails, its ongoing virtues, and its persistent flaws. Indeed, the partnership has been fraught with controversy over its true extent, its robustness, and its desirability.” —from the introduction, A Liberalism Safe for Catholicism?

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Review of Politics and the Story of American Catholicism Daniel Philpott Ryan T. Anderson 1

Chapter 1 "The End of Machiavellianism" (1942) Jacques Maritain 37

Chapter 2 "The Development of Newman's Political Thought" (1945) Alvan S. Ryan 68

Chapter 3 "Church and State" (1950) Heinrich Rommen 100

Chapter 4 "The Social Meaning of Leisure in the Modern World" (1950) Josef Pieper 120

Chapter 5 "Common Good and Common Action" (1960) Yves R. Simon 131

Chapter 6 "The New Rights Theory and the Natural Law" (1982) Ernest L. Fortin 171

Chapter 7 "Grounding Human Rights in Natural Law" (2015, response to Fortin) John Finnis 194

Chapter 8 "The Catholic Tradition and Modern Democracy" (1987) Paul E. Sigmund 234

Chapter 9 "Catholics and the Civic Order: Parish Participation, Polities, and Civic Participation" (1988) David C. Leege 253

Chapter 10 "Michael Novak and Yves R. Simon on the Common Good and Capitalism" (1996) Thomas R. Rourke 285

Chapter 11 "A 'Catholic Whig' Replies" (1996) Michael Novak 312

Chapter 12 "Response to a 'Catholic Whig'" (1996) Thomas R. Rourke 319

Chapter 13 "Catholicism and Liberalism: Kudos and Questions for Communio Ecclesiology" (1998) Michael J. Baxter 322

Chapter 14 "Liberal Ideology, an Eternal No; Liberal Institutions, a Temporal Yes? And Further Questions" (1998) Michael Novak 342

Chapter 15 "Communio Ecclesiology and Liberalism" (1998) David L. Schindler 352

Chapter 16 "'The Crisis in Church-State Relationships in the U.S.A.': A Recently Discovered Text by John Courtney Murray" (1999) Joseph A. Komonchak John Courtney Murray Samuel Cardinal Stritch Francis J. Connell 364

Chapter 17 "Christianity, Magnanimity, and Statesmanship" (1999) Carson Holloway 402

Chapter 18 "Fides et Ratio: Approaches to a Roman Catholic Political Philosophy" (2000) James V. Schall 424

Chapter 19 "Is American Democracy Safe for Catholicism?" (2000) Gary D. Glenn John Stack 449

Chapter 20 "The Core of Freedom: Public or Private?" (2000) Glenn Tinder 472

Chapter 21 "Robust Tension over Safety" (2000) Clarke E. Cochran 475

Chapter 22 "Democracy Unsafe, Compared to What? The Totalitarian Impulse of Contemporary Liberals" (2000) Michael Novak 479

Chapter 23 "Response to Our Critics" (2000) Gary D. Glenn John Stack 484

Chapter 24 "Beyond the Nations: The Expansion of the Common Good in Catholic Social Thought" (2001) William A. Barbieri, Jr. 490

Chapter 25 "MacIntyre, Aquinas, and Politics" (2004) Thomas S. Hibbs 520

Chapter 26 "Render Unto Caesar … What? Reflections on the Work of William Cavanaugh" (2009) Paul S. Rowe 545

Chapter 27 "If You Render Unto God What Is God's, What Is Left for Caesar?" (2009) William T. Cavanaugh 571

Editorial Reviews

"Over the decades, the Review of Politics has published some of the finest scholarly work on Catholicism’s engagement with liberalism, democracy, and human rights. Daniel Philpott and Ryan T. Anderson have selected “the best of the best” of these writings to include in their volume A Liberalism Safe for Catholicism. The book is a virtual graduate seminar on a subject that has increased in interest and importance as time has gone on—and promises to continue increasing as the Catholic Church, which was once deeply suspicious of liberalism, democracy, and human rights, has become their greatest defender against those who claim their mantle but who consistently undermine them in both theory and practice." —Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University

"An important contribution to twenty-first-century debates and a reminder that, for more than seven decades, The Review of Politics has been one of the English-speaking world's premier journals of political theory." —George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies, Ethics and Public Policy Center

"One needn't be a fan of liberal theory to value this superb collection of writings from The Review of Politics. Editors Daniel Philpott and Ryan T. Anderson have created a resource of enduring importance; a compendium of the best defenders and critics of the liberal state's compatibility with Catholic faith and life. It is vital reading for anyone interested in the future of the Church in American culture." —Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop of Philadelphia

From the Publisher